8/14/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
He's preseason football.

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Will Joe Burrow and the Bengals be ready to roar against
Jayton Daniels and the Commanders on Monday Night Football.

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It's a pig skin power struggle. Get the call live
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Stream for free on the new and improved iHeartRadio app
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Speaker 3 (00:25):
That's a promo right there. What's up? I'm Bullegar. This
is ESPN fifteen thirty. Thanks for listening today. I hope
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(00:48):
We have some good stuff today, including our guy Tony
Pike in just about forty minutes latest on the Bengals.
No Bengals practice today, but that doesn't deterrist. That doesn't
stop us from giving you the late from training camp.
Training camp reports tomorrow morning. By the way, the next
a door and window, Tony and Mo Football Show from
Bengals training camp. Looking forward to that ten o'clock tomorrow morning.

(01:12):
The Reds on August the fourteenth are one game out
of a playoff spot. Be honest with me, Okay, there
are many times over the course of the last number
of months, four and a half months, or if I
would have said the Reds will go into the third
weekend of August a game out of a playoff spot,
you would have said, you're out of your mind. It's

(01:32):
not going to happen. Now, a game out of the
playoff spot isn't the goal. Finishing seventh in the National
League isn't the goal. This team has a lot of
work to do. They've got a lot of stuff to overcome,
including often themselves. But this team is a game out
of the last wildcard spot in the National League. After
last night's blowout, shutout win over the Philadelphia Phillies, a

(01:57):
great series victory. The Phillies are a really good team,
but they had thrown at them this week high end
starting pitching, really good starting pitching. They didn't win the
game on Monday, but Andrew Abbot was terrific. I don't
believe in pitcher wins and losses. But it stinks that
he got a loss because he deserves better. But he

(02:18):
was awesome last night. I'm sorry Monday night. Brady Singer
pitched on Tuesday. Brady Singer was really, really good. Brady
Singer is not an All Star like Andrew Abbot, but
he was terrific. He's a pretty reliable middle to back
end of the rotation guy. Last night, Hunter Green made
his return. Let's be honest, because we always are. Hunter

(02:39):
Green's return has come under the cloud of uncertainty can
he stay healthy? One really good start is not going
to guarantee that he stays healthy. It is come with
there's being some discussions about his willingness or ability to
come back as quickly as maybe the folks who run

(03:00):
the ball club would like slow playing it, so to speak. Nonetheless,
last year's Reds All Star starter, this year's Reds Opening
day pitcher, took the mound last night and he was awesome.
And I'll be honest with you, after the first couple
of innings as kinda I don't want to say skeptical,

(03:22):
let's just say curious, because when he came off the
injury list the last time, in his first start, he
threw two or three really good dominant innings, and then
the wheels fell off quickly. The wheels did not fall
off quickly. Last night, Hunter Green, in his return his
first big league game in over two months, goes six innings.
He gives up three hits, he doesn't walk anybody, and

(03:45):
he punctuated his return to the rotation, his return to
the Reds with this Green come set from the belt.
Here comes the three to two pitch to Harp.

Speaker 4 (04:00):
Swinging in a miss, He struck him out, got him
with a slider down and in Harper down on strikes
for the second time. Tonight, Green sixth strikeout to cap
six innings and shut out.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
Baseball Tommy Thraw the call Red's Radio Network seven hundred WLW.
That came with the score one nothing, Reds bottom sixth
Kyle Schwerber on third base, future Hall of Famer Bryce
Harper at the plate. Hunter Green had retired him the
first two times, had struck him out once. That felt
like the ballgame. That felt like a high leverage situation.

(04:37):
That felt like the eighth inning on Monday, where if
Hunter gives up a hit, or if Hunter gives up
a homer, this team may not recover. Instead, you got
the sense they were energized by that, and then they
went to work.

Speaker 5 (04:51):
Three.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
In the sixth Noel f Marte hits a little league
home run, and then Miguel and Douhar hits a Grand Slam.
How awesome has that, dude?

Speaker 5 (05:00):
Ben?

Speaker 3 (05:01):
What a pickup so far by Nick Krawl, Reds win
the ballgame? Ate nothing? Tony asked me before before the
switch over at the end of his show. Is that
the most impressive Red Series win this season?

Speaker 5 (05:13):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (05:13):
I think it is in part because of where we
are on the calendar, in part because of the quality
of opponent the Reds are playing, in part because they
lost the game on Monday, in part because a lot
of us really weren't sure what to expect from Hunter
Green last night. I'll say this, though, I don't know
about you, but you know that like game we play
in sports to Trope of Sports Talk Radio, the stock game,

(05:35):
I'd buy stocking that guy, I'd sell my stock in
this player. I don't know about you, man, but I
am glad. I am glad I did not sell my
imaginary Hunter Green stock because what you saw last night.
I know with Hunter Green, there's other parts of the conversation. Right,
there's his health. He has a hard time staying healthy.

(05:56):
There's the route that he takes when he isn't healthy too,
getting back on a big league mound. It's fair to wonder, like,
you know, is there a bit of a disconnect between
him and the team that he pitches for when it
comes to his return from injury. But more than anything,
Hunter Green when he's on the mound is dominant. He's
one of the very best pitchers in baseball. You don't

(06:17):
need me to tell you that. You could watch it.
You can look at the stats and he could be
so big for this team. He could be so big
for this team's playoff chances. He could be the difference maker.
Here he is after talking about his six shutout innings
post ball game last night.

Speaker 6 (06:35):
And your return.

Speaker 5 (06:36):
What was tonight like for you?

Speaker 7 (06:38):
It was great.

Speaker 8 (06:39):
I mean a lot of mental fortitude and a lot
of inner emotions and thoughts trying to overcome and obviously
be able to produce tonight. So I'm glad I was
on the side of that.

Speaker 9 (06:55):
He talked to yesterday about what you might mean for
this team and embracing that out after tonight, maybe eight
starts slip down the stretch.

Speaker 5 (07:04):
What kind of difference you think you can make from
this club words position. We'll see.

Speaker 8 (07:08):
I mean, I'm you know, I have a lot of
confidence on myself and what I'm able to do at
this level.

Speaker 5 (07:13):
So we'll see.

Speaker 8 (07:14):
But I'm taking one day at a time and I'm
being as president as possible.

Speaker 3 (07:18):
That's Hunter Green after the game last night. I think
we stole that from the FanDuel Sports Network. You heard
some Nedo sound effects in the background. Hunter Green and
the Reds win eight nothing. Reds are off. Mets blow
a game last night Atlanta. Score is what eight and
the seventh inning and the margin between New York and
Cincinnati is down to just a game. The extraordinarily red

(07:39):
hot Milwaukee Brewers are here this weekend. They're eating free
Hamburgers in Milwaukee. Because the Brewers have won twelve consecutive games.
They are an absolute machine. We'll get to that today
and tomorrow. The story is Hunter Green. The story is
Hunter Green's return. The story is the return of the staff,
as the return of a staff, as the return of
an all star starting pitch, the return of the type

(08:01):
of pitcher that in my lifetime, the Reds haven't had
all that often. The return of a cornerstone, the return
of a foundational piece, the return of a smart investment,
the return of a guy who can make a huge
difference in this Reds push toward the postseason. Now he's
got to stay healthy. You're being very reasonable if you're

(08:22):
not quite sure you believe that that's gonna happen. You're
being very reasonable if you wonder, can Hunter Green? Can
one man with a checkered injury history, can he really
be that much of a difference. You're also being reasonable
if you go, look, Hunter Green was awesome last night,
but there's other areas of this team that are suddenly
starting to show promise, like their ability to hit left

(08:44):
handed pitching. Suddenly playing against left handers doesn't present a
huge clump of kryptonite in front of this team. You
could also take a different approach. You could watch Hunter
Green last night, acknowledge that he was good, and decide
to hit fast forward on the conversation and wonder if
it doesn't make sense for the Reds to trade Hunter Green.

(09:08):
Or you could take it a step further and not
even wonder if the red should trade Hunter Green, but
go ahead and make the bold statement that the Reds
should trade Hunter Green. I'll make an admission here. There's
lots of things that people who have my job can
do to show their laziness. I've been guilty of some.

(09:30):
I've been guilty of many of them. You know, we
joke about it sometimes. The Mount Rushmore trope, right, you
could pull that. You could pull that off the shelf.
There's a handful of topics, like you know, for years
and years and years, if you just had nothing else,
you could pull Pete Rose and Hall of Fame, eligibility
and gambling off the shelf. Pretty easy to do. There's

(09:53):
always been like a handful of like gimmicks or go
tos that you could employ to to craft a show
around one of those things that you could do. And
I have tried to not do this. This show has
been on the air now for got eighteen years, sixteen
years in the afternoon, and I love this medium, and
so I listened to a lot of hosts. I listened

(10:14):
to a lot of sports talk radio hosts, and I
can tell you the ones that do this, and I
can tell you the ones that don't do it. And
I've always tried to be one who doesn't do it
mostly with success a handful of failures. But one of
the things you can do if you want to be
lazy is take the local newspaper columnist's latest peace and

(10:38):
make it the backbone of your show, or at least
build a whole bunch of different topics around it. You're
gonna have to excuse me, because today I'm going to
do that because Jason Williams, the very esteemed, very accomplished,
very good columnists sports columnists for the Since that Inquirer

(11:01):
has a piece today, I want you to go read it.
The headline why do Reds need Hunter Green to keep
pitching question Mark so they can deal him? And he
proceeds to outline his case for why the red should
trade Hunter Green. I guess this offseason, I'm a night out.

(11:24):
I stay up late. I stay up late sometimes just
to hang out. Sometimes, like once or twice a week,
I stay up late to get work done on this show,
write social media stuff, show prep things I want to read,
just work on this show. This is what I was
doing last night, and it was deep into the night,
one fifty in the morning. I'm sitting at my desk

(11:45):
in my home office. I have a quick pitch on
MLB Network on In the background, I'm doing a few
things and I'm thinking that, you know what, I'm about
to call it a night. Close to two am, and
I'm looking at Twitter, and there's the two eat from
the Inquirer Sports Section's Twitter feed linking to this piece.

(12:05):
I cannot for you, a because this is an audio medium,
and B because I'm just not physically capable. I cannot
for you replicate the look on my face when I
saw the tweet, much less when I clicked on the
piece and read it.

Speaker 6 (12:25):
I can't.

Speaker 3 (12:25):
I can't do it justice like I cannot. It's one
of those moments where I wish like I was the
star of some sort of reality show, because then maybe
the camera would have captured in real time exactly what
I was doing, exactly the face that I was making,
and the reaction that I had at about one fifty
five in the morning when I read this. And so

(12:49):
now I'm sorry, you know, on this show, on this show,
and this is important, on this show, we we we
critique performance. We don't critique people, and we attack ideas.
We don't attack people. We're not going to attack Jason
Williams because He's a terrific dude, good rider. He's done

(13:11):
some radio for this company. We like Jason Williams. I
despise this idea, and we'll explain why next on ESPN
fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

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they have an internet website. Uhi ns dot com Vote now.
I link to the Jason Williams piece. He says the
right should trade Hunter Green. We're going to get into
some of his rationale here in a second, but I
encourage you to read it yourself. My question is is
A Jason onto something or B Jason on something? Vote

(14:40):
now at moulegar five one, three, seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty.
Jason makes a lot of points. One of them that
he makes is well, and I'm not going to give
away all the guys content. That's that's not fair. That's
you know, I wouldn't like it if somebody did that
for me, So I want you to read the piece.

(15:02):
But he makes the point that Andrew Abbott has kind
of taken over as the Red staff ace, and that's fair.
He's been awesome this year. He's he's been an all
Star this season. He's kept the team in nearly every
single game. He's going to pitch on Sunday, and you're
looking at that game as a huge one because let's see, man,
either the Reds are going to be looking to avoid
getting swept, or they're going to be trying to take

(15:24):
the series, or maybe they're going to drop the hammer
on the Milwaukee Brewers and they're aiming to sweep them,
and you want Andrew Abbott on the mound for that.
Andrew Abbott has been awesome, but he essentially makes the
point the Reds have the pitching depth to, you know,
kind of hang in there. They've shown they have the
pitching depth with Andrew Abbott and the other starting pitchers
that they sort of don't need Hunter Green while he

(15:47):
was injured and why he was slow rolling his return,
and that is Jason's verbiage there, they stayed afloat. In fact,
they did more than stay to float. They hung in there,
and they're within striking distance of a while. Oh, Kurt Spot,
My counter to that would be, quite simply, what's wrong
with having two staff aces? The two best Reds starting

(16:12):
staffs this century had multiple guys that you could legitimately
consider a staff ace. You know, we never got to
see it play out during a full season, unfortunately, but
the twenty twenty team that barely snuck into the playoffs
as the seventh seed had Trevor Bauer who won the

(16:33):
Cy Young that abbreviated season, and Luis Castillo also had
Sonny Gray. Like multiple guys that you would consider frontline starters,
top of the rotation, guys, the dudes you give the
ball to an opening day or in game one of
a playoff series, and multiple guys. Twenty twelve, they had

(16:55):
multiple guys in that staff. They won ninety seven games.
Multiple pitchers on that staff that you could legitimately call
a staff ace. You're allowed to have two. Part of
the reason why the Reds have starting pitching depth and
they do is because they have lots of really good
starting pitchers. Also, they didn't need to go overboard at

(17:15):
the trade deadline to enhance their starting pitching depth while
they did acquire one why because they had Hunter Green
in their back pocket. You're allowed to have more than
one staff ace. It's remarkable to me. I hear it
all the time. You can never have too much pitching.
You can never have enough pitching. Okay, cool, the Reds. Now,

(17:39):
here's what we have come to know about this franchise.
Over the last god what forty fifty years, they haven't
had many guys who have come through their system and
established themselves as quality starting pitchers, much less bona fide
staff aces. Until Johnny Quato came through the system and
established himself as a number one. The list of homegrown

(18:01):
staff faces was basically Mario Soto and Tom Browning. One
of those dudes last pitched in the mid eighties. One
of those dudes last pitched in the mid nineties. Then
it became John ey Quato. Since then, ain't many. Now
they've had some pitchers they've acquired from outside, Luis Castillo,

(18:22):
Sonny Gray, Trevor Bauer himself. This franchise, hardly known for
developing high end starting pitching, now has developed some high
end starting pitching. It's the backbone of this current team,
and we want to trade a guy who has a
case to be the best of all of them. Come on, man,

(18:45):
Come on man. One of the arguments Jason makes is
if you dangled Hunter Green, a lot of teams would
want them, and you could get a lot in return.
And sure there's some validity to that. I guess the
first thing I would wonder is, isn't this sort of
selling low? Let's say he gets through the rest of
the season, which would be another seven to eight starts,

(19:08):
hopefully all really good. Isn't that still selling low? Dude
was on the Interurre list for over two months, guys
on the inter list all the time. If you are
hell bent on trading Hunter Green for some odd reason,
don't you want to maximize the value. And one of

(19:28):
the things Jason points out is, oh, you know you
could trade Hunter Green and give up a run producer. Okay,
let me just ask this if if you were to
execute a trade for Hunter Green, is the team on
the other end of that trade like the White Sox Pirates,

(19:54):
or they a team that's a little bit closer to contention,
maybe a team that's clearly in contention. Is it team
that's clearly in contention gonna give up a high end
run producer? Maybe they have a surplus. I'm somewhat skeptical
that that would be the case. Then there's the money
part of this, and this is the part that sort

(20:15):
of drives me nuts. Hunter Green this year, and I
know I've mentioned this this season, is the eighty first
highest paid pitcher in baseball. He represents maybe the best
commodity in the entire sport, which is cost controlled staff ace.
We know exactly what Hunter Green is gonna make next year.

(20:36):
He's gonna get a two million dollar raise. His twenty
twenty sixth salary this year would make him the sixty
eighth highest paid pitcher in baseball, just above Brady Singer.
Next year, you're gonna be paying basically for Brady Singer,
and you're gonna be getting Hunter Green. Now, a salary
does jump in twenty twenty seven to roughly fifteen fifteen

(21:01):
point three million dollars this year, that would make him
be forty third highest page starting pitcher in baseball. So
is there money you could save? Sure, it ain't that much.
Eighty starting pitchers make more than Hunter Green this season.
Many have had better seasons because they've been healthier. And yes,

(21:23):
he does get hurt a lot. Let me ask you this,
knowing what you know about his ability to perform when
he's healthy, knowing what we know about what it's like
to regret trades. When you watch somebody that the Reds
have given up on go on to have success elsewhere,
knowing what you know about how relatively inexpensive he is,

(21:46):
can you imagine watching that guy get through a full
season elsewhere doing what he does on the man when
he is healthy, Knowing what he costs. How would that
make you feel? Would you dwell on what the Red's
got in return, or would you wonder how things could
unfold if they had the cost controllable staff ace that

(22:09):
found a way to stay healthy for a full season elsewhere.
I don't have a specific list of names in front
of me, but I would imagine there's a pretty healthy
list of pitchers or players who are where Hunter is
in his career. He's twenty six year four, not a
fresh faced rookie, of course, but twenty six not washed up.

(22:31):
A decent list of players, a decent list of pitchers
who have worn the label of injury prone, often hurt,
who end up going through a stretch where they then
stay healthy and end up being really good, And if
the team stuck with them, that team ends up being
very happy that they didn't succumb to the temptation to

(22:52):
trade them because they were hurt all the time. I
don't know, man, Jason points out, you could say, forty
two million dollars forty two million dollars, forty two million
dollars for a Hunter Greens for the rest of the
decade is peanuts. Peanuts. If that dude became a free

(23:12):
agent today, he'd get close to two hundred million dollars.
Perhaps if he was not under contract for next year
yet arbitration eligible. Even acknowledging his injuries this year, he
would get a raise of more than two million dollars
for twenty twenty six. He is one of the very
best bargains in the entire sport. He represents one of

(23:36):
the best decisions the Reds have ever made, not just
drafting him, which was pretty much a no brainer, but
buying out that first year free agency and paying him
when they did. Now, the other part of this is why, yeah,
but I mean you could take that money and you
could you could go sign Kyle Schwarber. They can still

(23:59):
go sign Kyle Schwarber. I'll give you two options. Okay,
you're Bob or Phil Castellini, and you want to make
a run of Kyle Schwarber, which the red should want
to make a run of Kyle Schwarber. The dude's pretty
much is shoeing to hit forty home runs every single year.
It's two different ways you could do it. You could
trade Hunter Green, so you could do it, pay Kyle

(24:21):
Schwarber the Hunter Green money. By the way, you trade
Hunter Green to acquire Kyle Schwarber, and then Kyle Schwarber
says Yeah, that's cool. I'm still not signing there. Well
then then then you look kind of stupid. But but okay,
you could you could decide we're gonna trade Hunter Green
so we could save the forty two million dollars, or
or how about this idea? Okay, Or you could get

(24:44):
on the phone and call the other twenty team investors
and ask them for money so you could acquire Kyle
Schwarber and keep Hunter Green five point three seven four
nine fifty. I know what I would do, I know
what makes more baseball sense, and trade Hunter Green to

(25:09):
acquire Kyle Schwarber. Maybe it strikes me as the heck
of a gamble. Though we're trading this dude, you'll get
something in return. We save the money, and now we
can apply that to Kyle Schwarber, who he can't exactly
kidnap and forced to come to Cincinnati. He would still
have to choose to come here. That would still be

(25:31):
other teams involved in the bidding process. I understand Hunter
has fallen out of disavor with a lot of people.
Maybe he's fallen out of fallen into disavor with people
that he works for plays with. I don't know, I
do not know. But I have a hard time believing
that where the Reds are right now makes a whole

(25:52):
lot of sense to take a cost controllable staff Ace,
who's not making that much money, who when he has pitched,
has been one of the very best, like five or
six pitchers in baseball since the beginning of last year,
and moving him, I have a hard time believing that
makes any sense. Fifteen percent of you are on Jason's side.

(26:14):
I'd love make it make sense. At mollagor on Twitter
five one, three, seven, four nine, fifteen thirty. We are
way late. I don't know how to read a clock.
Maybe I should be treated. Uh, Tony Pike's going to
join us in just about ten minutes. My name is Mowegar.
Sports headlines not a lot of them today. This is
ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports.

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(26:59):
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Sports Headlines are a service of Kelsey Chevrolet, Home of
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to yours for life, Kelsey chev dot com. Bengals didn't
practice this morning. They're practicing tomorrow ten am where their
AE Door and Window, Tony and Moe training camp show
ten to noon tomorrow. Bengals commanders on Monday night? Did

(27:38):
they makee Schamar's Stewart like wash Joe Burrow's car or something?
Today is the punishment over? We are we done getting
managed Schamar Stewart cool? Can they fix the offensive line? Please?
They're not gonna do it Brandon Sheriff because he's retired.
I feel like the NFL retired him more than the
other way around. Reds are also off tonight. They host
the Milwaukee Brewers, the hottest team in baseball, team with

(27:59):
the best record in baseball tomorrow evening. Six p forty
is going to be tomorrow night's first pitch on seven
hundred WLW. What else do we have? What else do
we have? The Florence Yawls are in action tonight on
the road against the Ottawa Titans. Cocoa Goff among the
winners today at the Cincinnati Open, which I went to

(28:21):
for about two hours this morning and thoroughly enjoyed. Though
it was hot. I like the hot weather. Tony Pike,
we always enjoyed chatting with him. He joins us next
on ESPN fifteen thirty.

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Speaker 1 (29:09):
With the latest from Bengals training camp.

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Look You Boy, Camber Credit Union on Europe, official home
of the Cincinnati Bengals ESPN fifteen.

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Tony Pike joins us on the Ray Saint Clair Roofing Hotline.
There is no training camp practice today, but we'll be
back tomorrow for the a E during window Tony and
Moe training camp show. Tony is with us. Now, Tony,
how are you doing?

Speaker 7 (29:34):
What's going on?

Speaker 13 (29:34):
Mo?

Speaker 3 (29:35):
Well? I didn't get a whole lot of mileage out
of the Brandon Sheriff. Should the Bengals sign him? Not
sign him? But I guess that has been extinguished because
he is retired. So what do we do now?

Speaker 7 (29:48):
Yeah? I mean it feels like I thought Will Hernandez
would have been an option to run after he's with
the Arizona Cardinals. Dalton Risner is still out there. Rosner
is still out there. But it feels like at this point, Mo,
if if they're going to do anything, it's going to
be an active cutdown day, and I know that sometimes
that gets pushed back. Well, you know, if they're getting
cut from another team, you know, why would that make

(30:10):
sense for the Bengals. There are different needs all over
the football field, each team based on their financials, based
on cap, based on where they have depth. It's not
like every team would need a guard. So someone may
get let go that you're surprised by, but I think
at this point that would be I would think that

(30:31):
the best course of action. If they're looking at an upgrade,
you're gonna have to wait until cut down day and
see maybe who's out there available.

Speaker 3 (30:37):
Yeah, look, you can find some gems on cutdown day.
You can find some players. You know, the axiom one
man's trash is another one's treasure that applies. It's happened
before here, It's happened with players who have left here
and have been picked up by other teams. I just
don't like relying on it, and I feel like you
could perhaps make the argument the Bengals are relying on
a little bit too much.

Speaker 7 (30:57):
Yeah, you can make the argument that win the season
ended last year. The last conversation we had was you
better make sure you're going to next year and you're
protecting Joe Burrow. And you wonder now as we sit
here in the middle of August, have they done enough.
There's two more preseason games there's one the starters are
going to play in and in the regular season here,

(31:18):
and you got Miles Garrett lining up opposite of the
offensive line. So have you done enough to, as Ted
Carriss put it, protect all your hopes and dreams at
quarterback and Joe Burrow.

Speaker 3 (31:30):
Let's stay on the offensive side of the ball. Describe
for me what you've seen from Charlie Jones so far
into camp and give us an idea of how that
impacts maybe some of the decisions the Bengals may have
on special teams and at wide receiver.

Speaker 7 (31:44):
I think he's just solid. I think he obviously has
the trust of Joe Burrow because you saw that in
the first preseason game. You know where he's going to be.
He's not going to do anything that's going to wow
you from an athleticism standpoint. He's just he's going to
be where he needs to be. He understands the route concepts,
he understands protections when he needs to adjust. He's just

(32:05):
a smart player. And when you have that, you know
that that's reliable for a quarterback. So you have that aspect,
and then you have what he's been in a special
teams role. You're not asking to be anything more than
a fourth or fifth wide receiver on this offense, and
with two tight ends, and with Andrei Yoshibash and who
knows what it looks like for Jermaine Burton. I think

(32:26):
he's got a great role carved out on this team.
And I think you saw that solidified with the fact
that Joe Burrow made it a point to go to
him in that first preseason game with a couple opportunities
against the Eagles.

Speaker 3 (32:37):
Well said Tony. We'll chat again coming up at four
forty five. I look forward to it, all right, Mom.
Tony Pike and I are back tomorrow at Bengals training
Camp ten am. It's the AE Doorn Window Tony and
Moe Training Camp Show. We'll be broadcasting from the Airport
Painted Body Broadcast Area. Our show comes your way thanks
to Oakley Greens all the sports, all the time and

(32:58):
our guy Tofty tax resolution UH five one three five
one three TPH. Tony like all of our guests with
us on the Ray Saint Claire Roofing Hotline. And don't
forget Monday Night, it's the Bengals and the Commanders on
ESPN fifteen thirty. That game we'll kick off at eight o'clock.
Pregame covered starts right here at three pm. We've got

(33:20):
some other Bengals stuff to get to a little bit
later on. Look, man, I got accused of sort of
downplaying the Shamar Stewart thing when he when he touched,
when he was pushed into when when he made contact
with Joe Burrow. I completely understand. I don't know how

(33:41):
you don't anything whatever it is, whether it's a teammate,
a guy on another team, the wind, whatever it is,
anything that could potentially put in harm's way, the franchisees
meal ticket is something none of us should be a
fan of. Yes, Shamar Stewart needs to be told, hey, man,

(34:04):
that's our quarterback, that's our meal ticket. We do not
touch him. But I would much rather. I hate to
do this to Miles Murphy because maybe Miles Murphy goes
on and has an awesome year. But I referenced this yesterday.
Paul Danner Junior wrote the piece about Miles Murphy, and
the central theme of the piece is like, can they

(34:26):
get this guy to play with an edge? Can they
get this guy to have the kind of nastiness you're
looking for? That along with his physical gifts, can add
up to you know, a quality third NFL season and
what very much feels like a make or break year
for him, and maybe it works out. I hope it does.
With Shamar Stewart, the measurables are off the charts. We

(34:47):
all know what the physical gifts are. There's questions about
him finishing plays. I don't think there's any questions about nastiness,
about toughness, about having an edge. I would rather have
that and have to walk it back just a little bit, right,
Like it's like quarterbacks, Man, give me the dude who's
a little bit of a gunslinger, and I'd rather ratchet

(35:08):
it back instead of the guy who's gun shy. I'd
rather have the gun slinger. I'd rather have the guy
that occasionally I'm gonna have to say, you know, just
kind of bring it back a little bit. You know,
we used to sort of say this about Vontez Perfect.
Vantez Perfect took it too far. I'd rather have the
Vontez Perfect and occasionally go, dude, you know what, let's

(35:30):
bring it back over to the right side of the line. Now,
he abused it and was totally irresponsible and out of control,
I'd rather have the guy with the edge that I'm
gonna pull aside and go, dude, dial it back just
a little bit, instead of having to squeeze a little
bit more out of a guy who everybody's wondering, quote,
does he have that dog in him? That's it? Like

(35:51):
to me, it's all right, fine, ratcheted back Schamar. But
also in camp he's been impressive. I don't know if
that's going to translate to the games that actually matter.
I don't know what's gonna happen when he goes up
against starting caliber NFL offensive lineman. All I could do
is make an assessment based on what I've seen, and
everything we've seen from Shamar Stewart on the field has

(36:13):
been pretty encouraging. All Right, More on Hunter Green's let's
walk through some things as it relates to the idea
that maybe he should be traded. Coming up at four
h five on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station, Man
summertime is here.

Speaker 10 (36:29):
And fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (36:33):
Yes, by that before this is ESPN fifteen thirty Moegar.
Thank you for listening, and hopefully you're having an awesome
Thursday afternoon Brandaman and Jones on baseball. Later this hour,
a preview of the twenty twenty five Skyline Chili Crosstown Showdown,
the premier high school football event in the country, coming

(36:56):
up in just about thirty minutes. We're also two weeks
away from kickoff. It's Cincinnati versus Nebraska. Chad Brendel joins
this talks and uce football coming up in less than
fifteen minutes. Let's take a phone caller two. We have
talked extensively. I dislike doing this. I dislike doing this
because I think often it's it's a lazy thing to do.

(37:18):
You let a columnist do your show for you, and like,
I know how this comes off. I'm like the Hunter
Green guy. I'm also a Reds fan more than anything else.
If the Reds want to go get Kyle Schwarber this year,
I refuse to subscribe to the belief that it would
take freeing up Hunter Green's relatively inexpensive salary for that

(37:41):
to happen. Right now, By the way, the Reds have
almost no guaranteed money on the books. They're guarantees next
year are for Hunter Green at eight point three, which
is a bargain keep Brian Hayes at seven those A
Travino is locked in at five, just under five and
a half, and that's it. I think there's I think

(38:02):
there's a team option for Austin Hayes. It's a mutual
option that would pay him a million bucks. Obviously, there
are gonna be some players who hit arbitration and get
pay raises. Nick Lodolo is arbitration eligible. He's making two
this year. He's going to make a little bit lesson
to this year. I expect him, we all expect him
to get a raise. Maybe Tyler steven Tyler Stevenson, I

(38:24):
think we would expect to get a raise, although I
think it's interesting to talk about his future with the team.
Brady Singer will get a raise. There's not a lot
of money committed to the team. Not a lot of
money committed to players who are on the team right now.
I should say, and if you want Kyle Shwarber, and like,
there's no reason to not want Kyle Sharber, none, none.

(38:47):
A dude is pretty much as close to a lock
to hit forty home runs as you'll find. And the
reason for acquiring KYLEI. Shwarber has nothing to do with
the fact that he's from here, by the way, really quick.
There's rumors out there that the city of Cincinnati gave
Kyle Schwarber the key to the city. That that did
not happen. That I mean, that's that's not a thing

(39:10):
that occurred to the very best of my knowledge. But
if they wont Kyle Schwarber, I go go come up
with the capital to sign him, come up with the
money to make him a Cincinnati Red. Whether it's you
reach into your own pockets, whether it's you do a
capital called to the other owners, whatever it is, I

(39:34):
refuse to believe that the only way to find a
power hitter is to trade away a cost controlled staff ace.
I will also fully acknowledge this that it would make
sense this offseason if we found out that time needed
to be spent fixing the disconnect between Hunter Green and

(39:59):
the because there's been weirdness with this return from his injury,
as there was last year. I think it is blatantly
irresponsible to say, well, Hunter Green's soft. That's not something
I'm even close to entertaining. I think it's irresponsible to
say that Hunter Green doesn't care about helping the Reds win.

(40:20):
I think it's to me nothing more than there's a
difference of opinion as to whether or not Hunter was
capable of pitching. I do absolutely believe that when it
comes to things like this, we should give the athlete
the benefit of the doubt because the athlete knows his
or her body. The athlete's body is also his or
her cash register. But it does feel like there's a

(40:45):
bit of a disconnect, and yeah, maybe that needs to
be repaired, Maybe that needs to be addressed. I think
it is silly to suggest, and Jason Williams and his
piece doesn't really do this, but I think it is
silly to suggest that because there's been a bit of
a disconnect as it relates to Hunter Green's return from injury,
that suddenly he's no longer a foundational piece of this franchise.

(41:08):
That just, I'm sorry, that just does not make sense.
It's a difference of opinion. It's an issue. Perhaps maybe
it's something that Hunter has to address with individual teammates.
It doesn't strike me as the sort of thing that
should drive a permanent wedge between the pitcher and the

(41:29):
team to the degree that now they've got to trade him.
I'll acknowledge that it's there I don't know how you
don't read some of the quotes from Terry Francona. There
seems to be a little bit of a difference of
opinion as it relates to when Hunter could have come back,
how he approached his rehab and that sort of thing.

(41:49):
And maybe we'll find out that Hunter should have approached
it differently. Again, I always default to the athlete and
believing that they know their body best. But if that's
an issue, is it's such an issue that we gotta
trade the guy? I'd like to think the answer is no.
If this is a money thing, like I know, it's

(42:13):
an absurd amount of money that none of us are
ever gonna earn in baseball dollars, Hunter Green is unbelievably cheap,
unbelievably cheap, and so it's not an insignificant amount of money.
But if you wanted to replicate Hunter Green in free agency,

(42:37):
it would be astronomical to think about the dollars involved here.
And yes, the Reds do have good starting pitching, a
lot of depth. Maybe one of those pictures they have
is going to have to be traded. We'll see Hunter
Green is still the picture on this staff in this organization,
who has the most upside. Chase Burns might ultimately have

(42:58):
something to say about that. Maybe, with more success, Andrew
Abbott will have something to say about that. And if
it turns out that Hunter Green is like your second
best guy or third best guy, then the Reds will
have a twenty first century or a more modern version,
I should say, of Glavin, Smoltz and Maddocks. Sign me
up for that, right, Uh, let's see here. Thanks to

(43:22):
everybody who has waited patiently. Brian, thanks for hanging on.
How are you?

Speaker 14 (43:26):
Oh?

Speaker 15 (43:26):
I'm going very well. How you don't know?

Speaker 3 (43:27):
I'm good man good?

Speaker 16 (43:29):
Yeah?

Speaker 15 (43:30):
I agree complete with it, completely with you. I think
trading him would be just insane. The only thing as
a fan I care about is winning a championship and parade,
and every almost every way that wins the World Series
has two or three high, high end starters that really
can dominate a game, and I just don't know why

(43:51):
you would just be like, oh, no, we're good, we
can trade them and still win, because that would be
just giving up. It just seems insane.

Speaker 3 (44:00):
I could see them getting to a point where they
have like three or four top end guys and you go,
you know, what we want to trade the most expensive.
As much depth as they have, there's still a lot
of unproven parts. Chase Burns was in college fourteen months ago.
Chase Petty so far hasn't really worked out. Nick Lodolo
has never gotten through a full big league season. Andrew

(44:21):
Abbott is trying to get through a full big league
season this year for the first time. They're not like
it feels like they have a surtplus. I think that's
a little bit overstated. When they do have a surtplus, fine, yes,
then explore whether or not it makes sense to trade
one of them. They don't really have one.

Speaker 17 (44:37):
Now, No, they don't.

Speaker 15 (44:40):
I mean it's you can't have enough starting pitching. I mean,
guys are gonna go down. And he for what he is,
I mean, he's such a value even if he doesn't
get any better, he does exactly what he did in
the past two years. What a steal, I mean, what
a steal? When he's healthy, he's dominant?

Speaker 3 (44:57):
Sure, sure you know, and look, you use the thanks
for the phone call, Brian, you use the term when healthy. Look,
I certainly do believe there's validity of the idea that
Hunter and the pitching people and the medical people sit
down and figure out if there are strategies that can
be employed to further enhance his ability to stay healthy.

(45:21):
Can't you do that before you decide we're just gonna
move on and effectively sell low before he proves he
can get through a full season healthy. Chad Brendle on
the Bearcats. I'm gonna ask him a question that was
asked of me on this show yesterday.

Speaker 12 (45:35):
Next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 11 (45:42):
life with convenient locations across the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.
Learn more at ucehealth dot com. On Clifton Avenue's still
got that accident involving a metro robus at Vine Street.
Police remaining there on the scene. East found State Route

(46:04):
twenty eight. It's another accident that between Gayner Road and
Main Street and northbound State Route forty eight. Another accident
at Schlopman Road. I'm at e Zelic with traffic.

Speaker 3 (46:14):
Well check in again with Tony Pike. We'll start to
look ahead to Monday. Bengals and Commanders on ESPN fifteen thirty.
Tony's gonna join us in twenty five minutes. Brenneman and
Jones on baseball as well. On Thursdays, we're joined by
our friend Chad Brendel Bearcat Journal dot Com. You see
opens up the season two weeks from tonight in Kansas
City against Nebraska.

Speaker 16 (46:34):
Hi, Chad, heyme, are you working Monday? Am I working Monday?
Like I'm I'm confused?

Speaker 3 (46:41):
I am, I am, I am not. I am not
here on Monday. I have no idea. What's happening to
replace me?

Speaker 5 (46:48):
I am it's me.

Speaker 16 (46:50):
I just say it was me, and then it was you,
and then it was me. Like I'm we're playing tag.

Speaker 3 (46:55):
I don't know, but I am not able to I'm
not able to be here on Monday for reasons that
don't make a lot of sense for me to get into.

Speaker 16 (47:03):
I think it's me and Tony.

Speaker 3 (47:05):
Very good. Nice, All right, well you'll be the pregame show.
Very nice. Will will I was asked yesterday by a
caller to this show a little bit after five o'clock
yesterday who saw the UC Nebraska point spread and asked,
should I be concerned? I think that number is about
what it should be, six and a half. How about you.

Speaker 16 (47:27):
Thank it's fair. I mean, you know, I think that
Cincinnati team's going to be better. How much better, I'm
I'm not sure yet. I also have concerns that go
beyond talent, like we have seen. Here's the thing though,
the more and more I dig into this as we
get closer and closer to the season, Like, the reality is,

(47:50):
each of the last two years, those teams should have
won more games, and they didn't.

Speaker 13 (47:57):
They didn't have.

Speaker 16 (47:59):
You know, top end level Big twelve roster yet, but
there were plenty of games that they were in and
somehow found a way to make the critical game changing
mistake that cost them victory. And until I see otherwise,

(48:22):
that has to be a concern. So with that said,
I think one score in Arrowhead, I mean there is going.

Speaker 17 (48:30):
To be.

Speaker 16 (48:32):
DJ Hodge and eighty thousand other corn Husker fans at
that game, like it is going to be a Nebraska
home game. So yeah, I don't have much of a
problem with six and a half.

Speaker 3 (48:44):
No, I don't either. I want to talk about a
couple of things that I saw and heard at practice
on Monday. One would be this and he sort of
made an allusion to it that made me think about
what I was talking about Jim talking about with with
Jim Kelly, and that's last year, you see, you know
the term now is the middle eight, Right, the last
four minutes of the first half, first four minutes of
the second half last year was a disaster. You and

(49:06):
I have talked a lot this offseason about improved special teams,
different special teams, coach, different personnel, how they've emphasized it,
to plan with it. There's maybe the first thing that
I'm going to be looking for from a game management perspective,
from a special team's perspective, from an offensive perspective, like
that cost them so dearly so many times, including in
games they let get away at the end. I want

(49:29):
to see that. And I think we're gonna get an
opportunity two weeks from tonight to see if they're better.
In the quote middle eight, I agree.

Speaker 16 (49:35):
I was asked a question on the BDP podcast on
Monday mo that I think goes right to that point, like,
if this Cincinnati Bearcat's team was to have a first
team All American, who would it be. I think it's

(49:56):
actually a fairly easy answer for the person that would
be most likely, and that name is Max Fletcher. Max
Fletcher averaged forty seven yards of punt two years ago
in the SEC second team all SEC. I think he

(50:17):
is going to come in as one of the top
I'll be fairly conservative, one of the top ten punters
in America. And if that's true, If that's true, I
mean second team SEC. I think if your second team
SEC at your position, you're probably in the top ten

(50:39):
of America at your position. Right, that was such and
I don't think it was Mason Fletcher wasn't right last year.
Like I with before game transfer like red shirt rule,
I fully felt they should have let Max Fletcher punt
the last two games last year because Mason clearly wasn't

(51:03):
one hundred percent healthy. I think he is that much
of a game changer. The kicks are incredibly long, the
kicks are incredibly high, Like that alone should mitigate some
of those problems they had in the last five games
of the season last year. And I think Steven Russnek
has a chance to be a really good place kicker.

(51:24):
So just on those two guys alone, set Luke Pascal
on his different philosophy the philosophy's aside of special teams,
those two guys should make them better right away. And
then I mean I have seen special teams look and
Brian Mason, who's now a special teams coordinator for the Colts,

(51:47):
he is my measuring stick on what practice should look
like for special teams units. They looked a lot more
like Brian Mason used to run them now than they
did in the last couple of years. Just leave that there.
That should put them in better position. I'm not going

(52:07):
to say it's going to win them games, but last
year we watched those phases lose them games. You can't
have that in a league that's going to be as
close as the Big twelve.

Speaker 3 (52:19):
I had a chance to a ten practice I saw
you there Monday was my first one. I was really
impressed by the overall team speed. I could be skeptical
when I hear things, I need to see them. I
saw it on Monday.

Speaker 16 (52:34):
I think they look athletically and physically the most Big
twelve or power for whatever like that. They have since
twenty twenty one, and even you can go back to
twenty twenty one, like they had it at the top
of the roster. But there wasn't a whole lot behind it.
There's actual, I think quality depth. Like I think there's

(52:56):
six linebackers that all could make it case for like
starter quality player. I think there's five or six safeties
that fit that mold. I think there's four or five
wide receivers that fit that mold. You're starting to see
that depth develop, and a lot of that includes just
the physical nature, the stature and the speed of the players.

(53:21):
I think it's a lot better than it has been.

Speaker 3 (53:23):
All Right, we're gonna talk more football next week and
then in two weeks from today, which will be game day.
Let me flip it to men's basketball. Who's Jordi Rodriguez.

Speaker 16 (53:34):
Six foot six small forward slash shooting guard. Has played
a lot of international basketball in Spain. If you do
not like the three point shot, probably not gonna love
Jordi Rodriguez. He will like three on one fast break.
He will pull up and take the three like he is.

(53:57):
Gonna let him fly. In Spain last year, both between
the national team and his club team, he averaged about
five and a half three is a game and shot
over forty percent for a program that has lacked forty
level three point shooters. I don't know if he can.
I don't know if he can guard you. No, but

(54:19):
putting him on the rockster as well as he can shoot,
I'll take it. There's always room for guys that know
how to play offense for me, because there haven't been
enough guys that know how to play offense in this
basketball program.

Speaker 3 (54:33):
I start asking you the same question mid August every year,
when's the schedule coming out?

Speaker 16 (54:39):
I give you the same answer every year, helif I
know mo.

Speaker 3 (54:45):
A to at least ask.

Speaker 16 (54:48):
Yeah, I mean, I think they're fairly close. I don't
you know. One of the things is we still haven't
gotten the Big twelve stuff, so you know, whether you
got the non conference finished or not. I can't release
everything until the Big Twelve gets their stuff out. So
I just think U see doesn't rush to get that
stuff announced like some do, because they know it doesn't

(55:11):
really matter until the conference things come out and then
you release the whole thing. That's gonna be probably September.
But yeah, I wish I had a better answer for
you on that. I get eye rolls every time I ask,
so I kind of just quit ask you.

Speaker 3 (55:29):
Well, I'll talk to you next week and I'll ask
you the same question, so come up with the come
up with a more creative answer.

Speaker 16 (55:33):
Okay, I'll see what I can do though, all right,
can I make updates? Like? Can I Can we do
like Taylor Swift type like announcements like you know, we'll
start dropping Easter eggs. Maybe I'll get some Easter eggs here,
big on Easter.

Speaker 3 (55:49):
Egg Here's my question, because I know you listened. Did
you listen to Taylor Swift with the Kelsey Brothers.

Speaker 5 (55:56):
Uh?

Speaker 16 (55:57):
My daughter had it on this morning if she was
having the school and I was nervously sitting in the
passenger seat. Yeah, I've seen some clips on social media today,
so I feel like I've gotten a pretty good can
of that interview.

Speaker 3 (56:10):
Can I let my daughter listen to it?

Speaker 16 (56:15):
Taylor does have a little bit of a botty mouth, Okay,
but as long as you're not offended by a few
curse words, it's fine.

Speaker 3 (56:23):
Good stuff. Chad, Thank you, Thanks Bob. We'll preview this
year Skyline Chili Crosstown Showdown.

Speaker 12 (56:31):
Next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 6 (56:37):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center.

Speaker 11 (56:40):
Cincinnati and northern Kentucky. Learn more at u sehealth dot com.
Southbound seventy five after Union Center Boulevard, it's an accident
on the right shoulder. Police are there on scene. Road

(57:00):
it's another accident. This is at Hamilton Avenue. He's found
State Route one twenty two accident before Robinson Vale Road.
I'm at ezelic with traffic. This report me.

Speaker 3 (57:10):
Pike again in ten minutes plus. Brendaman and Jones on baseball.
The twenty eighth Skyline Chili Crosstown Showdown kicks off a
week from tomorrow. It's the first Friday in all three
states in the tri state area. This is remarkable. It's
quite a feat and it's a I think, at least

(57:31):
in this area, and I'll venture to say in the country,
there is a no better high school football showcase than
the Skyline Chili Crosstown Showdown. The the baby of our
next guest we haven't talked to in a while, our
buddy Tom Gamble. It's awesome. The heavy what's going on?

Speaker 5 (57:46):
We how are you man? Glad to be here?

Speaker 18 (57:48):
It doesn't it feel outside like it's perfect football weather
man oh Man. Yeah, it's crazy, isn't it.

Speaker 5 (57:57):
You know, it's funny.

Speaker 18 (57:58):
It's started in nineteen ninety eight with two Friday night
doubleheaders at Knippert Stadium. Then we went to you know,
all day Saturdays and morphed into one day. But Knipper
was always the hub until twenty seventeen when the NCAA
levied it's you can't use as a.

Speaker 5 (58:14):
Third party vendor, I e.

Speaker 18 (58:16):
Me, you can't rent a BCS school facility. So all
of a sudden I found that out at the beginning
of August. We had to kind of juggle things and
started moving. It went from the beginning weekends, if you will,
to now over ten weeks and going to campus games
on Friday nights. It's really been cool. I mean, it's
it's the essence of high school football. It is, I mean,

(58:37):
and it's and I don't think there's a better place
if anybody hasn't ever been to Lawrenceburg. So our opener
next Friday is East Central at Lawrenceburg. And literally the
setting is US fifty. I mean, if called the pit
Lawrenceburg High School, the stadium sits there. You can drive
on fifty park your car. I mean, I wouldn't advise this,
but you can park it off to the side and

(58:58):
literally watch the game of the most unique and cool settings.
And these are two programs that pretty much win every year,
and it's a great way to start year number twenty eight.
As you mentioned, so they all start, you're right, the
tri State, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana. So we're going southeast Indiana
for our opener, East Central at Lawrenceburg a week from tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (59:19):
So this obviously is gonna sort of go for most
of the high school football season. Are you releasing new
games every week? How's that gonna work?

Speaker 18 (59:28):
Yeah, I'm gonna give you the first three because we
go Indiana, Northern Kentucky, and Ohio. And it's it's not
I mean, you can figure it. I mean, if somebody
wanted to spend the time and figure it out.

Speaker 5 (59:37):
Yeah, but that's time. We've done it.

Speaker 18 (59:38):
And the last two weeks, weeks nine and ten, we're
actually gonna put some on on our social We're gonna
have fans vote, We're gonna kind of take because you
never know. By the time you get to week nine
and ten, I mean, it's you know, we've got a
lot of really good games. We kind of wanted to
leave it open, let people participate. So Week two we're
going to Cooper High School in Northern Kentucky.

Speaker 5 (59:58):
They host Highlands. It's a rem of last year's Class five.

Speaker 18 (01:00:01):
A state semi finals two teams. Highland's dropping the four
age based on enrollment, Cooper at five, but they're both
expected to challenge.

Speaker 5 (01:00:10):
To maybe get back to Lexington.

Speaker 18 (01:00:12):
In Week three, it's Edgewood at Bain and it's the
first on campus game ever for Hamilton Bay. They literally
have built a brand new, state of the art, very
nice facility. So we've got a Southeast Indiana, Northern Kentucky, and.

Speaker 5 (01:00:26):
Ohio games to get things rolling.

Speaker 18 (01:00:28):
And we try to well, we try to spread it around.
There's a lot of great football, as you know, and
you know we'll have some GCL, some GMC, some ECC,
some CHL. Try to spread the love if you will,
because there are so many good programs and the only
reason you can do this for almost three decades is
a you gotta have great sponsors, in which Skyline, Chillian
Mercy Hilled or the Pedicoans sports Medicine are both have

(01:00:49):
both been there. Skyland has been incredible, as you will
though I know you're a fan, and then you gotta
have you gotta have quality football, and that's what we
have here. So it's it's easy to showcase it when
you've got such great players, great programs, and I mean,
you know, you turn on Saturday, you turn on Sunday
and college in the NFL, and you'll see guys and
you can say, like we do, man, he.

Speaker 5 (01:01:11):
Played in the Showdown.

Speaker 18 (01:01:11):
You just it's it's funny sometimes how you watch and
you forget about guys, right, I mean, it's it's there's
that many.

Speaker 3 (01:01:20):
Tom Gamble, the creator organizer of the Skyline Chile Crosstown
Showdown with In Game Sports. It starts next Friday. You
could follow all season long on Twitter at xtown Showdown.
Give me one or two of the major storylines going
into the Greater Cincinnati High school football season.

Speaker 18 (01:01:40):
Well, I think I think I'm gonna take two teams
last year in Ohio that made state finals, and that
would be Moler Division one and Anderson Division two.

Speaker 5 (01:01:49):
I mean, and you look at Molar, I mean.

Speaker 18 (01:01:50):
They've you know, I think everybody just bought last year.
They were, you know, destined to win it. They made
into the state final and then they lost to a
team out of Columbus. But I think with at Ponatowski,
who is the Ohio reigning mister football and who's also
the player of the year in Ohioan baseball.

Speaker 5 (01:02:07):
I mean, this is so.

Speaker 18 (01:02:08):
And this and this guy's really talented and he's got
a rocket arm, tremendous baseball player. I think Ken Moehler
with a lot of returneyes. You know, can they get
back there and get over the hump? You know, it's
been a while in Division one, and then and then
you've got you know, typically you've got Saint Xavier, You've
always got Lakota West, You've got you know, there are
those programs in Division two. Anderson they lose a lot,

(01:02:29):
but Evan Dryer and Anderson, he just reloads and Anderson
has suddenly become a perennial D two power.

Speaker 5 (01:02:36):
So I think that over here.

Speaker 18 (01:02:38):
Because you know last year those two made it to
the final, and Anderson played in that big snow game
and you know it went down to the end. And
then in Kentucky it's Beechwood again, right, I mean, they
just every year they keep one. But you've got now
Highland's dropping A FORA with Covenan Katholic, so they're back
as rivals. Cooper in five A made it to the
state final each of the last two years, so there's

(01:03:01):
a lot. I think those are the ones. You know,
one thing about high school football in Greater Cincinnati, MO
is a little bit like college football. You know, you
can tell me who those teams are in college football,
right You're in Ohio State, your Georgia, your Clemson, whatever.
And I think most of the.

Speaker 5 (01:03:17):
Top teams here year in and year out.

Speaker 18 (01:03:20):
And it's not easy to stay there, you know. I
remember Terry Combs way back in the day at Cole
Rain when he would tell me, he said, you know,
it's one thing to get there, then you have to
stay there because everybody's looking to knock you off. And
I said this for decades when Princeton and Moehler were
the preminent teams in this area, teams had one option
or two options. They could just get better or they

(01:03:43):
could just keep getting drilled because Moller and Princeton back
in the Jerry Fouls Pat Mancuso days, they were that good.
So I think it's we've kind of gotten it's more
spread out there's more. I think there's more parody, but
you still have those teams that really are the ones
that you point to early on to get out of
the area and go to the state.

Speaker 3 (01:04:03):
Our guy, Tom Gamble, the the creator and organizer of
the Skyline Chili Crosstown Showdown with In Game Sports. It
gets underway next Friday, the first Friday for all three
states in the Tri state area, and it's a terrific showdown.
I have driven past that stadium in Lawrenceburg a billion times.
It looks like it's awesome. Yes, yes, it's going to

(01:04:25):
be a beautiful setting for East Central and Lawrenceburg next
Friday at seven o'clock. You could follow the twenty twenty
five Skyline Chili Crosstown Showdown on Twitter at xtown Showdown.
It's always awesome to have you and we'll chat soon.

Speaker 5 (01:04:39):
Well appreciated it.

Speaker 18 (01:04:40):
How about this, We're in August middle August in the Red.

Speaker 5 (01:04:43):
Pug game out in the Wildcard. How about that?

Speaker 3 (01:04:46):
It's awesome. Yeah, like it's awesome. You know, you know
what it's like doing this when they're good and it's
it's fun.

Speaker 19 (01:04:52):
I do.

Speaker 5 (01:04:52):
I'm right there with you both. Thanks appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (01:04:54):
You're the man. That's our guy, Tom Gamble, Skyline Chili
Crosstown Showdown Underway next fro. Tony Pike joins us next
on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 12 (01:05:03):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 6 (01:05:07):
Traffic from the.

Speaker 11 (01:05:08):
Uc Health Traffic Center. The uc Health Backneck and Spying
Center offers innovative treatments to improve quality of life with
convenient locations across Greater Cincinnati and northern Kentucky. Learn more
at ucehealth dot com. Southbound seventy five after Union Center Boulevard,
it's an accident on the right shoulder. Police are there

(01:05:29):
on scene.

Speaker 6 (01:05:30):
Kemper Road. It's another accident.

Speaker 11 (01:05:31):
This is at Hamilton Avenue, eastbound State Route one, twenty
two accident before Robinson Bailee Road. I'm at Ezelic with tramp.

Speaker 3 (01:05:41):
Tony Pike is back with this hourly training camp reports.
Bengals did not practice today. They practice tomorrow. They take
on the Washington Commanders on Monday night. I don't think
it's too early to start talking about that game, Tony,
where we are expecting to see the most extensive run
from the starting players in that game against Washington, so
we obviously want to see the continuation of Joe Burrow

(01:06:03):
in the offense and what they did against Philadelphia. The
defensive performance just simply has to be better. Hopefully. There
are some players who didn't play against Philadelphia who play
against DC. But give me one or two guys that
you'll be watching for specifically against Washington that you maybe
didn't see enough of against Philadelphia.

Speaker 7 (01:06:22):
Well, obviously you'd like if Miles Murphy is available to play,
you want to see more of him because he's going
to be given a great opportunity. Outside of that MO
on the defensive side of the ball, you need all
of them because the one thing we know from what
we saw is it wasn't good enough. But you understand
it's a new scheme. You understand it's a new coach.
You understand a lot of players are now trying to

(01:06:43):
understand what's different about this system. So all I want
to see as a whole. Are they better than they
were against Philly? Do they provide a little bit of resistance?
Can they push back? Is there an aggressiveness and an
urgency that was missing against the Philadelphia Eagles? Offensively, it's
pretty easy. I think Dylan Fairchild passed his first test

(01:07:03):
with flying tellers, but he went against some second thirteen guys,
and because of that, we haven't had to talk much
about him. We talked about the other guard spot, and
that's going to continue to be an emphasis. But I
want to see Washington, who's reportedly going to be playing
some of their starters. I want to see how he
can handle a defensive front that is projected to be
a good defense that is projected to be a super

(01:07:25):
Bowl contending team. I want to see him pass his
next test, and if so, then I think you feel
really really good if you're the Bengals about what you
have at your guard spot.

Speaker 3 (01:07:33):
You had no question about a Tony Pike back with
me at five forty five, and he and I returned
tomorrow for the AE Dorn Window Tony and Mo Football Show,
starting at ten am live from Bengals training camp practice.
Tony joined us just a few seconds ago on the
Ray Saint Clair Roofing Hotline, Brenaman and Jones on Baseball
is Next. I have Heart Failure that thousand dollars and.

Speaker 2 (01:07:55):
A trip to our iHeart Radio Music Festival that's the
nationwide keyword festival.

Speaker 16 (01:08:01):
To two hundred two hundred, you'll get a confirmation.

Speaker 18 (01:08:03):
Text and infos and your message in data rates apply
in this nation y contest.

Speaker 3 (01:08:07):
That's festival to two hundred two hundred.

Speaker 1 (01:08:11):
No one covers the Bengals.

Speaker 2 (01:08:12):
No Body Flight, ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (01:08:17):
Mikelob Ultra five o'clock Happy Hour on ESPN in fifteen
thirty thanks to michelob Ultra, Superior Taste, superior light. Here
there is a mikelob Ultra in my future, in my
very near future, let's say, by about twenty till seven,

(01:08:37):
I will have a nice cold michelob Ultra in my hand.
Maybe I'll take a picture. We'll see, we'll see. As
we say, I hope you're having an awesome Thursday afternoon.
We have been busy, will be busy this hour. Back
to back guest from Apple that is totally coincidental. Brian
Dunseeth calling Evanders homecoming in Portland FC Cincinnati versus Portland.
Brian's gonna join us at five twenty, and Heidi Watney

(01:08:59):
is going to be on the show. She is with
Apple TV as well. Tomorrow night, Reds Brewers is an
Apple TV game, and so she is going to be
a gabp for the beginning of a three game series
between the Reds and the hottest team in baseball and
the team in baseball that right now has the best
record in the sport. Looking forward to that, Plus more
from Tony Pike on the Bengals coming up at five

(01:09:21):
forty five. We've talked a lot today about Hunter Green
and his return last night, which was awesome and badly needed.
And Hunter Green. Look, their recent offensive explosion has been great,
and it does feel like, maybe, just maybe, that left
handed pitching is not quite the kryptonite that it has
been all season long. And the Miguel and Douhr acquisition

(01:09:45):
has been awesome so far. Time will tell if we
end up giving Nick Crawl an a plus. But can
you tell me the name of the person they gave
up for Miguel and Duhr. You have no chance of
doing that, But can you recite for me two or
three three moments where Miguel Andrew Hart has come up
big in a big situation inclitting last night the Grand Slam.

(01:10:06):
It's been a great pickup and so through a game
out of the last wildcard man, And yes, yes, they
have a tough series this weekend. Against Milwaukee. And yes,
they have a tough trip to mostly West Coast clubs
next week, and they have another West coast trip back
in September, and they have a series with the Mets
that first weekend in September, which could be absolutely massive.

(01:10:27):
But here they are man August fourteenth, in the postseason
hunt and last night they got their ace back. I'll
be generous because I love Andrew Abbott. Last night they
got another ace back. Hunter Green was terrific last night.
We played the audio at the first part of the show,
the strikeout of Bryce Harper, a future Hall of Famer,

(01:10:48):
to end the sixth inning. That moment felt like Andrew
Abbott in the eighth inning on Monday. Now, the Reds
will go on to score a bunch of runs. Nouel
de Marte hits a little league home run, Miguel and
Duhar hits the Grand Slam, they put eight on the board,
They win going away, they take the series. But that

(01:11:09):
moment where Hunter Green struck out Bryce Harper felt like
the ballgame struck him out for the second time. He
was terrific last night. There's built in skepticism as it
relates to Hunter Green, and I get it. It's what
comes with frequent injuries. Is he going to be able
to stay healthy? Is can you count on him? And

(01:11:30):
that's not going to go away because of one good start.
It's not going to go away. If he makes his
next starting pitch as well, that's there. And maybe there's
a disconnect that has widened a little bit between Hunter
and the team based on the path that he took back.
But between now and the end of the season, this
dude can be a difference maker. And between now and

(01:11:53):
the end of the season, if the Reds are going
to do this, if they're going to still defy the
odds and do this, meaning get to the postseason, it's
gonna happen on the shoulders of really good starting pitching.
And if they got to the postseason, they would not
be favored to play whoever they played, whether it's as

(01:12:14):
the sixth seed or maybe they catch San Diego, They're
not gonna be favored to win a postseason series. That's fine,
they shouldn't be. But if you've watched them all season
long because of the starting pitching, if you're being fair,
you would not discount the possibility that they advance. Hunter
Green would get one of those starts. Maybe he wouldn't
pitch Game one. He would get one of those starts,

(01:12:37):
and he's gonna get starts that would otherwise go to
Right now, Chase Burns, we all love Chase Burns. Chase
Burns is in the short term gonna be a weapon.
Chase Burns long term maybe awesome as well. Hunter Green's
a big, big part of this team this year. Now,
we've talked a lot today about Jason Williams piece, and
I cannot emphasize this enough. On this show, we critique performance.

(01:12:58):
We really don't critique people, and we at times hammer
away at ideas. We don't hammer away at people. And
I know there's a tendency. This is how it works.
If you disagree with an opinion, you hate the person
who shared the opinion. I am an opinionist. I give
dozens of opinions out every day on the radio. Some
of them I'm sure people listen to and go, what

(01:13:21):
the hell is that guy thinking? Many of them proved
to be wrong. Sometimes I change my mind. We're not
attacking the person. We're not attacking the publication either. We're
attacking the idea that you have a controllable financially controllable
ase and that you would trade him, which is what
Jason Williams pushes for in his column that came out

(01:13:42):
late last night or early this morning excuse me on
Cincinnati dot com and I've linked to it and you
can go read it for yourself. And there's a few
different hypotheses there. One would be that you could take
the money and use it to go get Kyle Schwarber
or another power hitter. I would say, go get the
money from your other owners if you can't come up
with it yourself, and go get the power hitter without

(01:14:05):
treating one of your staff aces. The money that Hunter
Green makes is largely inconsequential. Controllable staff aces are maybe
the greatest commodity in this sport. This year, he's the
eighty first highest paid pitcher in the game. Next year
he's going to get a two million dollar pay raise.
Brady Singer is the sixty ninth highest paid pitcher in

(01:14:27):
baseball this year, next year Hunter Green salary. Next year's
Hunter Green salary would make him this year the sixty
eighth highest paid pitcher in baseball. I just this franchise
has been known for a lot of things over the
last forty years, some good, some not so good. Not

(01:14:47):
among the good would be developing and promoting top end,
all star caliber pitchers that come through their system and
stay Hunter Green's here for the rest of the decade.
That's a guy that you want to be a part
of the solution. The cost is controllable, salaries relatively cheap,
and if you do want to trade him, you do
think ultimately that's the best course of action. Wouldn't you

(01:15:11):
want to sell when the stock is high? Is the
stock that high as good as he has been. Is
the stock that high when he's coming off being on
the injured list for two months and another season where
he couldn't get through it without going on the injured list,
it's selling low, or it's at least not selling as
high as you could if he developed the track record

(01:15:32):
of staying healthy. So there's a lot there. We've had
fun with it, and again I cannot emphasize this enough.
This isn't attacking. I've seen tweets. Jason's an awesome writer.
We're not doing this to go after Jason Williams. He
shared an opinion. We disagree with it. We're having fun
with it. It's a fun Sports discussion. The opinion says
happens to be for my money, completely and totally asinine.

(01:15:55):
Let's grab one or two before we move on. Tyler,
thanks for hanging on. You're on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 9 (01:16:01):
Hey, mo, I just had a couple of thoughts about
the Hunter Green thing.

Speaker 17 (01:16:07):
Yeah, you know, as.

Speaker 9 (01:16:10):
Reds fans, I feel like we've we hear a lot
of things repetitively from the Reds front office and ownership,
like the need to draft and developed and you know,
making sure we keep the pipeline moving and stuff things
like that, and then how another thing is how hard

(01:16:32):
it is to get pictures to come pitch in Cincinnati.
And with Hunter Green, you've got a guy that you know,
you drafted and developed and then he chose to stay
here and signed away one of his free agent years

(01:16:53):
to stay here. So like, I just don't see I
don't see much the validity to.

Speaker 5 (01:17:03):
Trying to trade him off.

Speaker 9 (01:17:04):
I mean, that's uh, that would just be really hard
the stomach. I can't really relate to that.

Speaker 3 (01:17:11):
So yeah, Tyler, you and I thanks very much. You
and I are on exactly the same page. Twenty six
year old controllable cost controlled staff aces. It's cliche to say,
don't just grow on trees. One of the arguments Jason

(01:17:31):
makes as well. You know, look at the season that
Andrew Abbott has had. They've proven that they can be
okay without him. Yeah, they've proven they can be okay
without them. They've proven they can hang in the hunt
for the sixth place position in the National League. They
had enough of a hole in their starting rotation, though

(01:17:53):
they had to go trade for one. They've been given
the ball to Nick Martinez this year. Who's you know,
deally better suited to pitch and relief they have Nicolodolo, who,
like Hunter Green, has not gone through a full big
league season. And even if you want to go look
mo because he hasn't gotten hurt this year and he
pitching the All Star Game and pitched well in the
All Star Game. Andrew Abbott is the staff ace you

(01:18:16):
can have. You're allowed to have two staff aces. The
greatest pitching rotation of my lifetime was the Atlanta Braves,
spearheaded by three dudes who were in the Hall of Fame. Now,
I'm not here to tell you that Hunter Green's going
to go to the Hall of Fame. There's room for
more than one staff ace in this century, the best

(01:18:37):
two staffs the Reds have had had multiple staff aces,
multiple guys that you could make the argument could pitch
in game one of a postseason series twenty twenty, twenty twelve.
The other parts you need. You're allowed to make free
agent acquisitions. By the way, Reds did okay ish in

(01:18:57):
free agency this past offseason. If you want to make
a go about the money with Hunter Green, like the
dude is one of the best bargains in the entire sport.
If you want to trade Hunter Green, so you could
save that money to go get Kyle Schwarber, Just go
get Kyle Schwarber, Just go come up with the money

(01:19:18):
to go get Kyle Schwarber. It is doable. Or if
the idea is to trade Hunter Green because another team
is going to give you a lot, which would happen
and included in the lot is a run producer. I
would imagine if you're trading for Hunter Green, you're in contention.
If you're in contention, are you trading one of your

(01:19:39):
better run producers? Seventeen minutes after five o'clock FC Cincinnati.
FC Cincinnati's played some weird games, including the one on
Sunday against Charlotte. They're on the road. They're playing in
Portland for the first time ever. Brian Dunsith on the call.
MLS Season Pass joins us.

Speaker 12 (01:19:56):
Next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 11 (01:20:03):
From the UC Health Traffic Center. The uc Health Backneck
Learn more at ucehealth dot com. Southbound seventy five at
Fort Washington Way, there's an accident been moved off onto
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(01:20:26):
Kyle's Station Road, and Unpleasant Avenue in accident at Hunter Road.
I'm Ati Zelik with traffic. This reporting sponsored UCY Cincinnati.

Speaker 16 (01:20:36):
Make us the number one pre set on your car
radio and on the free new and improved iHeartRadio app
Free Never Sounded So Good, ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 3 (01:20:45):
FC Cincinnati is going to be playing at Portland for
the first time in franchise history. It's also a homecoming
for Evander. This match is going to start late ten
thirty on Saturday night. You'll watch it on MLS Season
Pass on Apple TV. Ten thirty FC Cincinnati uneven performance
in the League's Cup, a weird match against Charlotte, a

(01:21:08):
controversial ending. It feels like a little air has come
out of the balloon, but they're obviously still in the
hunt for the supporter shield. Could badly use three points though.
On Saturday night, Brian Duncith MLS Season Pass on Apple
TV joins us to talk about the match. It's awesome
to have you, Brian. How are you.

Speaker 5 (01:21:26):
I'm good, I'm good.

Speaker 16 (01:21:27):
Good to be back.

Speaker 3 (01:21:28):
It's awesome to have you. It's gonna be good to
be back for Evander if his club can get three
points on Saturday.

Speaker 14 (01:21:35):
Hey will and I always wonder because I've been in
this situation as a former player. You want out, then
you get to go back for the very first time.
I was fortunate on two occasions to score against my
former team, and man, it was so sweet that celebration
because you know exactly who you're pointing at, you know

(01:21:55):
who exactly you're exacting your revenge that you didn't feel
that you were respected for whatever reason. So for Evander, listen,
I think he knows it's going to be emotional. There's
a certain amount of insider trading that's going to be
happening with he being able to tell you know, paton
his entire staff about set Piece's style of play, thinking

(01:22:18):
about tactical acumen, how they can take advantage of it.
And at the same time, the Portland Timbers are going
to look at Evander and say, man, I'm going to
kick you for the next ninety minutes.

Speaker 3 (01:22:29):
You know, you mentioned something that I've wondered at times,
as do we as fans, kind of overrate and that's
a player from one team, you know, offering intelligence to
his new team, you know, about his former team. But
you say that could actually apply.

Speaker 18 (01:22:45):
Oh man, I was.

Speaker 5 (01:22:46):
Like the coach.

Speaker 7 (01:22:47):
I was like the tactician.

Speaker 14 (01:22:49):
Every time I played my former team, I was like, hey, coach,
by the way, this is their run, this is who's
going to make the pick, this is what they're trying
to accomplish.

Speaker 5 (01:22:57):
Yeah, I mean you.

Speaker 18 (01:22:58):
Take full of that.

Speaker 7 (01:23:00):
There is you know, this.

Speaker 14 (01:23:01):
Whole thing about when players get traded and they send
out the thank yous, and specific to soccer, you know,
they'll say like Dallas till I die. Nope, that ain't happening.
So Evander's gonna be I could see Evander up there
with a laser pointer being like, all right, Nick in
the back, you're gonna be dealing with Kelsey.

Speaker 18 (01:23:20):
I want you beyond.

Speaker 7 (01:23:21):
I's gonna pinch a little.

Speaker 14 (01:23:22):
Bit more on his left side. His right foot's not
as strong as you know, like all those little things. Hey,
by the way, they were trying with their set peaks
coach last season to try to implement this. If you've
seen this type of body language or you see this
type of movement, let's make sure we're proactive and are defending. Yeah,
all those things are real.

Speaker 3 (01:23:41):
One, what about this Portland team beyond beyond just the
return of Evander, what about this Portland team stands out
to you if you're a FC Cincinnati and Pat Noonan.

Speaker 14 (01:23:53):
Yeah, it's a team that I thought did well against
America in the League's Cup. And you know, similar to Cincinnati,
you know, there wasn't much wiggle room with regards to
if a result went a little bit more sideways than
you wanted it to. You know, they go on the road,
they're dealing with Santiago Moreno, the second player, similar to
a Vander that wanted out of Portland. He basically went

(01:24:15):
on strike, told the coach, told the staff that he
wasn't traveling. They had some weather delays in terms of
travel and flight scheduling, and then they got to Dallas
and a huge goalkeeper mistake from Maxime Croppo and the
air kind of went out from underneath the sales. And
I think this is one of the reasons why they've
been so proactive this summer transfer window, bringing in Bellde

(01:24:40):
bringing Carbaijo who was out at the New York Red Bulls.
He'll be familiar, neither of available for the weekend, and
there's conversations surrounding Matti Rojas, who used to be at
Inter Miami, and if he comes over, he spends his
time down in Argentina with River Plate. So I think
in real time they're trying to strengthen not only the

(01:25:01):
physicality and the team, but more the mentality. They want
some monster mentality players and maybe they get them, but
they won't be here in time for the game against
Cincinnati FC.

Speaker 3 (01:25:11):
Cincinnati on the road against Portland MLS season pass Apple
TV hopefully increase usage for Kevin Denke on a Saturday night.
The match starts at ten thirty. How do you handicap
the Eastern Conference.

Speaker 14 (01:25:26):
Highly highly, highly competitive. You know, when people ask me
about FC Cincinnati, I will always instinctually tell you that
they will be there in the end, because I just
I believe in Chris Albright, the staff that's been put together,
Pat Noonan, you know, Kenny Arena, Don Kneer, everybody that's involved.

(01:25:48):
I'm a huge, huge, huge fan of those guys because
they're soccer people making soccer decisions. And even though the
consistency of results haven't been there, I think there's reasonable
understanding why there's been, you know, some bullet point hiccups
throughout the course of the season. But I can promise

(01:26:08):
you this, whoever is drawn against FC Cincinnati in the playoffs,
and however this final eight games looked because obviously.

Speaker 13 (01:26:15):
You want to win the Eastern Conference.

Speaker 14 (01:26:16):
You want home field advantage, you want to be in
a similar situation that the LA Galaxy was last year,
where you kind of figure out a way to manipulate
results in your favor and host an MLS Cup final,
because that Cincinnati fan base deserves that type of atmosphere,
because it's extraordinary being inside that stadium. It's about momentum
and how can you manufacture momentum and manufacture moments where

(01:26:41):
even the annunga red card you can figure out a
way to hold on and get that three points. So
all of those things can be true in real time.
And what as I think a monster of a competition
that is the Eastern Conference.

Speaker 3 (01:26:54):
Yeah, it's last year was different, right, it was sort
of top heavy, and then we got to the MS
Cup playoffs and you know what we thought was going
to happen obviously did not. This year, it feels much
much more wide open. Obviously, FC Cincinnati still in the
running for the Supporter Shield. They have a bunch of
home games coming up in first things first on the
road Saturday night ten thirty against Portland, the homecoming of

(01:27:17):
Swords for Orlando Brian Dunseith MLS season past. Apple TV
can't thank you enough. Enjoyed it, man, Thanks so much.

Speaker 14 (01:27:24):
Yeah, I appreciate it.

Speaker 5 (01:27:25):
Have a good one.

Speaker 3 (01:27:26):
You two now have an awesome call that match at
ten thirty. Of course you could also listen to it
on ESPN fifteen thirty. This hour the show should be
brought to you by Apple, like we should get new
iPhones for doing this. Because Heidi Watney from Apple TV
is going to be a great American Ballpark. Tomorrow. She
will be on the call along with, among others, former

(01:27:49):
Red David Ross, Reds and Brewers, the hottest team in
baseball taking on a Reds club that's one game out
of the last playoff spot. Heidi is going to join
us next on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 12 (01:27:59):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 11 (01:28:05):
and Spying Center offers innovative treatments to improve quality of
Learn more at UCHealth dot com. On eastbound two seventy five,
it is an accident that's after Ronald Reagan Highway southbound

(01:28:25):
seventy five at Fort Washington Way accident. They're off on
the right shoulder. Police on scene and Pleasant Avenue. It's
another accident at Hunter Road. I'm at Eazelic with traffic.

Speaker 3 (01:28:35):
This report is sponsored by Rob from six o'clock. This
is ESPN fifteen thirty on Mowager. Thank you so much
for joining us. Tony Pike with one more Bengals training
camp update in ten minutes. This is gonna be fun
this weekend. Reds and Brewers. Cincinnati is not going to
catch Milwaukee, but you have the hottest team in baseball,
and here obviously a team that is pulled within a

(01:28:57):
game of the Wildcard. It's an Apple TV Plus game
Friday Night Baseball, so you'll watch it if you're not
at the ballpark with Rich Waltz, former Red David Ross
and Heidi Wattney handling the dugouts for Apple TV Plus,
and Heidi kind enough to give us a few minutes.
It's awesome to have you, Heidi, I guess preemptively welcome
to Cincinnati. I'm not sure if you're here yet, but

(01:29:17):
how are you.

Speaker 13 (01:29:19):
I'm en route to Cincinnati.

Speaker 19 (01:29:21):
I'm in an airport right now, but I'm great.

Speaker 13 (01:29:24):
I'm great. How are you?

Speaker 3 (01:29:25):
I'm well. I think this is a cool opportunity for
you guys to do some storytelling, because I'm sure there's
going to be a lot of folks around the country
who are trying to figure out how are the Brewers
so good and who maybe haven't been paying very close
attention to the Reds because quite frankly, in recent years,
they haven't given them a reason to and now you
can tell the story of this team. It should be fun.

Speaker 19 (01:29:45):
Absolutely, it's going to be a great game. We've already
been to Cincinnati twice this year, covered the Reds earlier
this season, so I know what a young, dynamic team
they have. And I actually have known Kerry Brentoner since
two thousand and eight when I was the Red Stuck
team reporter for a couple of years there when Peter
was in Boston, so I know what kind of a
leader he is and what he can bring to a group.

(01:30:07):
So Red Team Young Dynamics, Sun Ellie's Bath. The last
game we did there was unfortunately when Ellie's sister had
passed away and he was on actually he was out,
missed some time to be with his family there. But
the Brewers team, i mean, twelve straight wins, they haven't
lost since the trade deadline, absolutely on fire. They're getting

(01:30:29):
it done in different way every night, and they're really
putting it together in all facets of the game. They're pitching,
their relief pitching has been great. They're really solid defensive team,
and their base running is aggressive but smart, and this
team really seems to have it all.

Speaker 3 (01:30:45):
They're a team and you know the Reds two years
ago kind of came from nowhere with a lot of
young guys and hung in the race until the final
Saturday of the season, and we watched the team that
just had great chemistry. I look at what's going on
in Milwaukee, and if you look at just the there's
not a whole lot of guys who are having career
years anything like that. But it feels like with the
manager they have, Pat Murphy, like they've they've stumbled upon

(01:31:08):
something that I'm not sure you can necessarily quantify with
that with statistics or analytics.

Speaker 19 (01:31:15):
Yeah, it's interesting because in today's day and age, where
so many successful managers or player managers, right they'll always
back their players publicly. They don't air them out. I
mean a great example of that right now. We just
had the Yankees last week and Aaron Boone always publicly
does not criticize his players, and you got he just

(01:31:37):
cared it behind the fans. He's not letting them, you know,
just skate by, but publically he presents united front.

Speaker 13 (01:31:43):
Pat Murphy is the opposite of that.

Speaker 19 (01:31:45):
But for whatever reason it works there in Milwaukee. He'll
criticize the player, He'll tell him that was a boneheaded move.
He'll say, you know, a guy needs to be hitting
better if he wants more playing time, shouldn't have done that.
He will call his players out, and it's totally different
than what we've seen across the league. Really over the
last gosh, I would say almost decades, but definitely over

(01:32:08):
the last like four or five years.

Speaker 13 (01:32:10):
It's just you don't see.

Speaker 18 (01:32:11):
A lot of that.

Speaker 19 (01:32:12):
But that's how he was as a college coach.

Speaker 13 (01:32:14):
That's how he's always been.

Speaker 19 (01:32:16):
He's a guy you're going to know exactly where you
stand with him because he's going to tell you right
to your face. He's not going to sugarcoat anything. But
it's got this team performing really well. And sometimes that
kind of approach him backfire. Right, You can lose the players.
It doesn't work, but it works for this group, and
by all accounts, they're a very tight knit group.

Speaker 3 (01:32:33):
We had your your colleague, Trisha Whitaker on last week
because Apple TV Plus had Red's Pirates? Will you have
one of Pat Murphy's pocket pancakes?

Speaker 13 (01:32:41):
Oh my god, No, absolutely not. I kudos to Tricia.
She's stuck with the bit. She was like all in
on the job.

Speaker 19 (01:32:50):
I would have been like hardcast. Thanks that, keep your
pocket size to yourself, thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:32:56):
Yeah, all right, we're on the same page there. I
you know, better heard than me and better her than you.
You mentioned knowing Terry Francona for as long as you have,
and I'm sure this will be discussed on the broadcast tomorrow.
But I'm interested in your perspective because, look, the credentials
speak for themselves, the bona fides speak for themselves. I
can look at Terry Francona's resume and go, yeah, it's
a Hall of Fame manager. But I think what's been

(01:33:18):
fun to watch here is a lot of the stuff,
a lot of the stuff that we saw plague the
Reds early in the season. We were waiting for the
Tito effect. We were waiting for, you know, some of
that stuff to be cleaned up, mistakes made by a
younger team, some of the mistakes the Reds made last year.
And I feel like over the last i don't know,
forty to fifty games, we're not talking nearly as much

(01:33:39):
about base running mistakes. We're not talking nearly as much
about accountability, We're not talking nearly as much about defensive miscues.
And I'm not talking about you know, physical errors. I'm
talking about the mental mistakes. I feel like, and I
know this is more of a comment than a question,
I feel like we are starting to see the Tito
effect take hold here.

Speaker 13 (01:33:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 19 (01:33:59):
Absolutely, he knew that was going to come around eventually,
because Terry Flankana is someone that like he couldn't He's
going to command respect right from day one of spring training.
But you can't just snap your fingers and changes are
made in a day. I mean, these are the course
of habits, and these players have been playing this game
for their entire lives, so it took it takes some

(01:34:22):
time to kind of clean that up and and implement.

Speaker 13 (01:34:25):
The way that he does things.

Speaker 19 (01:34:27):
But and Gino is a guy, he's going to be
the opposite of Patmer out there on the field. He's
another guy that you know, publicly he put a back
you guys. He's going to call him out when he
needed but he picks and chooses. It's times when he's
going to say something like that, he mostly hammles it
behind closed doors. And players absolutely love him and he.

Speaker 13 (01:34:45):
Has so much respect.

Speaker 19 (01:34:46):
But it wasn't going to happen overnight, right, And it's
actually kind of surprising to see, you know, them come
this far over the course of one season, because sometimes
it takes a little more time than that to really
implement lasting changed.

Speaker 13 (01:35:01):
But that's what he's going to do. And the interesting thing.

Speaker 19 (01:35:03):
About Tito, I mean, I knew him when he was
in Boston and then that collapsed in twenty eleven. He left,
and when he went to Cleveland, everyone was scratching their.

Speaker 13 (01:35:13):
Heads, like World cheerience winning.

Speaker 19 (01:35:16):
Manager, what like he took Boston, Like why did he
go in to Cleveland? And he spent a decade there
and he tells me that some of the greatest times
of his life. He absolutely loved his time in Cleveland.
He needed to step away for health issues.

Speaker 13 (01:35:30):
He did.

Speaker 19 (01:35:30):
He got all of that kind of back on track.

Speaker 13 (01:35:33):
But he's not going to stay away from the game.

Speaker 19 (01:35:35):
And so it's the same thing when he went to Cincinnati.
There was a lot of head scratching outside of Cincinnati
about why Terry Francona is going to Cincinnati. He believes
in the organization, He believes in the direction of the organization.
He told me it's very similar to what he felt
when he went to Cleveland. He believed in the guy
in the front office to put together opening program. He
did not come out of retirement to loose and he

(01:35:56):
believed in the talent of this young group of players.
So it wasn't happen overnight, but we're definitely seeing it
happen with the team and they absolutely have a great
shot of the postseason right now at a wildcard. I mean,
the Brewers are just outther worldly right now. So the
division might be tough, and that's something grazy happened, but
with the wildcard and play, they absolutely.

Speaker 13 (01:36:16):
Could do it. And they're getting healthy salt Hunter Greens
dies the other night.

Speaker 19 (01:36:20):
They've got a sucker of guys in the starting rotation,
Guys you can move around. And my coaching staff has
experienced too under Tita, They've got a lot of really
good guys that know what they're doing. So while you
have a lot of youth on this team, you've got
the guys in the coaching staff and the guys in
Tito's office that know what they're doing to help guide
this young group.

Speaker 3 (01:36:40):
Friday night Baseball Apple TV Plus pregame coverage starts at
six o'clock Reds and Brewers with Rich Wall's former Red
David Ross and Heidi Watten. You guys do a really
nice job. Your broadcast look clean. You guys tell good stories.
It's fun when you guys carry the reds and consecutive
weeks for our team, so we're pretty excited. I appreciate
the time. High thanks so.

Speaker 19 (01:37:00):
Much, my pleasure.

Speaker 13 (01:37:02):
It'll be fine tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (01:37:03):
Sure will resent Brewers tomorrow, Apple TV Plus, and of
course you can listen to the game on seven hundred WLW.
All right, Tony Pike will join us in just a
few minutes on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 10 (01:37:19):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 6 (01:37:23):
Traffic from the uc Health Traffic Center.

Speaker 11 (01:37:26):
Cincinnati and northern Kentucky. Learn more at UCHealth dot com.
Eastbound two seventy five after Ronald Reagan Highway, the left
lane blocked off from an accident southbound State Route forty eight,
another accident at Mason Morrow Millgrove Road, and some slow

(01:37:50):
traffic northbound seventy one from Dana to Ronald Reagan Highway.
I'm at exelic with traffic. This report is sponsored by.

Speaker 2 (01:37:58):
ESPN fifteen with the Latest from Bengals training camp, brought
to you by Skyline.

Speaker 1 (01:38:04):
Sillie feeling good.

Speaker 2 (01:38:06):
It's Skyline time on your official home of the Cincinnati Bengals,
ESPN fifteen thirty one More.

Speaker 3 (01:38:14):
Time with Tony Pike. Latest from Bengals training camp. You
know a name that we have talked a lot about
the Bengals maybe going after free agent guard Brandon Sheriff, Well,
he announced today that he is retiring. So at that position,
if you're looking for other options, Tony, now what.

Speaker 7 (01:38:30):
Yeah? I mean, it feels like I thought Will Hernandez
would have been an option to run after he's with
the Arizona Cardinals. Dalton Risner is still out there. Rosner
is still out there, But it feels like at this
point mod if if they're going to do anything, it's
going to be an active cutdown day, and I know
that sometimes that gets pushed back. Well, you know, if
they're getting cut from another team, you know, why would

(01:38:52):
that make sense for the Bengals. There are different needs
all over the football field, each team based on their financials,
based on cap, based on where they have depth. It's
not like every team would need a guard. So someone
may get let go that you're surprised by. But I
think at this point that would be I would think

(01:39:13):
that the best course of action. If you're looking at
an upgrade, you're gonna have to wait until cut down
day and see maybe who's out there available.

Speaker 3 (01:39:19):
Yeah, look, you can find some gems on cutdown day.
You can find some players. You know the axiom one
man's trash is another one's treasure. That applies. It's happened
before here, It's happened with players who have left here
and have been picked up by other teams. I just
don't like relying on it, and I feel like you
could perhaps make the argument the Bengals are relying on
a little bit too much.

Speaker 7 (01:39:39):
Yeah, you can make the argument that when the season
ended last year, the last conversation we had was you
better make sure you're go into next year and you're
protecting Joe Burrow. And you wonder, now, as we sit
here in the middle of August, have they done enough.
There's two more preseason games. There's one the starters are
going to play in and in the regular season here

(01:40:01):
and you got Miles Garrett lining up opposite of the
offensive line. So have you done enough to, as Ted
Carris put it, protect all your hopes and dreams at
quarterback and Joe Burrow.

Speaker 3 (01:40:12):
Let's stay on the offensive side of the ball. Describe
for me what you've seen from Charlie Jones so far
into camp and give us an idea of how that
impacts maybe some of the decisions the Bengals may have
on special teams and at wide receiver.

Speaker 7 (01:40:27):
I think he's just solid. I think he obviously has
the trust of Joe Burrow because you saw that in
the first preseason game. You know where he's going to be.
He's not going to do anything that's going to wow
you from an athleticism standpoint. He's just he's going to
be where he needs to be. He understands the route concepts,
he understands protections when he needs to adjust. He's just

(01:40:48):
a smart player. And when you have that, you know
that that's reliable for a quarterback. So you have that aspect,
and then you have what he's been in a special
teams role. You're not asking to be anything more than
a fourth or fifth wide receiver on this offense. And
with two tight ends and with Andrei joshibash and who
knows what it looks like for Jermaine Burton. I think

(01:41:09):
he's got.

Speaker 5 (01:41:09):
A great role carved out on this team.

Speaker 7 (01:41:11):
And I think you saw that solidified with the fact
that Joe Burrow made it a point to go to
him in that first preseason game with a couple opportunities
against the Eagles.

Speaker 3 (01:41:20):
All right, Tony, thanks so much, Tony on the race,
Saint Clair roofing hotline. Back with me tomorrow on the
AE Door and Window Tony and Mode Training Camp show
at ten am from Bengals training camp right here on
ESPN fifteen thirty. Tarren, how are we on time?

Speaker 1 (01:41:36):
We have about two minutes?

Speaker 3 (01:41:37):
Two minutes, Mike, We got two minutes.

Speaker 17 (01:41:39):
Go ahead, thanks as usual, real quick Bengals thing better.
Hope Todd Brooks is a real good pass blocker. And
they say, is okay? I am now a believer in
the Cincinnati Reds. I haven't said that all year, but
I am now.

Speaker 7 (01:41:55):
Wow?

Speaker 3 (01:41:56):
Is it because of Miguel and duhar.

Speaker 17 (01:41:59):
Ye protecting Allie? Yeah, the whole trick right there.

Speaker 3 (01:42:03):
You're exactly right.

Speaker 17 (01:42:05):
And Tony and his sidekick there a month ago they
were going to kick kick Tito to the curb. Oh
it bad decisions, blah blah blah. It doesn't look like
such a bum now, does he? Huh huh.

Speaker 3 (01:42:17):
I think over the last forty to fifty games. Look,
you can nitpick the other night. He left Abbott in
probably the wrong decision. Every manager gets that right or wrong.
I think over the last forty or fifty games, I
think it's been really hard to take that many issues
with the job being done by the manager of the Reds.

Speaker 17 (01:42:36):
Here's the good news for the Reds. Well, I agree
with it. Yeah, the Dodgers have hit used forty one
pitchers this year.

Speaker 5 (01:42:43):
Forty one.

Speaker 17 (01:42:44):
They have seven bullpen players on the I at bullpen
pitchers on the IL and three starters. You I don't
care how good your lineup is, you cannot win consistently
with that going on. The padres and the problem because
they both bullpen up and that is no joke betters
the lock down bullpen. But the good news is the

(01:43:06):
Cubs lost Star for his bad luck. But Miguel Obaya,
their catcher, very good catcher. Tucker hasn't been hidden. None
of them have been hidden. So I think now it's
the time is right for the picking my friend.

Speaker 3 (01:43:21):
I hope, So, Mike, I hope. So you know, obviously
we talked about the Mets the other day. The Mets
made their bullpen better'ot and floded on him yesterday. But
what you just wonder is, in all fairness and in
all objectivity, what you just you keep thinking, they have
too many stars for them to offensively be as uneven
as they have been all year long. And so what

(01:43:44):
happens if those guys catch fire, and let's say they
rattle off eight out of ten because of their offense?
Where are the Reds in relation to them when that
starts to happen? And do the Reds keep pace as
it does? It's a fair question. Mike, I got a run, man,
have a great night.

Speaker 17 (01:43:58):
Okay, you had to blow the wind out of my
sales right at the very end.

Speaker 3 (01:44:04):
I'll keep you, but you're a believer in the Reds
will take it. We gotta go. Don't forget tomorrow Tony
and Moe training camp show ten am looking forward to that.
We are back tomorrow at three oh five. Mike Sando,
Mike Sando, QB tears the Athletic. One of our favorites
is going to be on the show at four oh five.

(01:44:24):
Thanks for the everminder, Taran, and thanks for booking Mike
Sando on the show. Anything you might have miss go
find on the iHeartRadio app. Thanks to long Next Sports
Girl shows. So we're got to go. Have a great night.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports station.

Speaker 10 (01:44:49):
You know that big bargain deserted

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